There’s No Way I’m Ever Shopping At Walmart Again Unless This Gets Fixed Now. Right Now.

Honestly, I think what the Waltons do to people who work for them is criminal. But let's hear more about that from economist Robert Reich. So here's the quicker version if you don't have time to watch the two-minute video:

Elizabeth Warren's Next Target: Walmart

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has it out for Walmart. On Tuesday, the freshman senator will hold an event on Capitol Hill calling out the retail giant for its low wages and terrible employment practices. The briefing will be held a week ahead of the nationwide anti-Walmart protests planned for Black Friday.

Warren will be joined by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.); members of OUR Walmart, a union-backed group helping organize Walmart workers; and representatives from other labor groups. Warren and her colleagues also plan to discuss legislation that could help Walmart employees and other low-wage workers around the country, including measures that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, forbid unpredictable irregular work schedules for part-time workers, and help prevent employers from retaliating against workers who share wage information.

Roughly 825,000 of Walmart's hourly store employees earn less than $25,000 a year. About 600,000 Walmart workers are part-time, and many rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, says its average full-time hourly wage is $12.83, though OUR Walmart has calculated it as closer to $9 an hour.

Walmart has retaliated against employees who have protested these low wages. In January, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company illegally fired, threatened, or disciplined more than 60 workers in 14 states for publicly complaining about wages and working conditions.

OUR Walmart is planning on holding a wave of protests at 1,600 Walmart stores the day after Thanksgiving to call for a $15 minimum wage and more opportunities for full-time hours. Last year, the group held demonstrations at more than 1,200 stores.

"The Walmart economy—a business model where a few profit significantly on the backs of the working poor and a diminishing middle class—perpetuates the income inequality problems that are devastating our country," OUR Walmart and the United Food and Commercial Workers union said in a statement Monday.

Walmart heirs working to kill affordable rooftop solar power

Rob Walton

Walmart is an environmental disaster, despite its claim to be moving toward renewable energy. But Walmart's majority stockholders, the Walton family, are going above and beyond, actively working against rooftop solar power, according to a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

The Waltons' anti-solar efforts fall into two categories. Since 2010, they've given at least $4.5 million in donations to organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Prosperity that are trying to weaken clean energy policies at the state level. These donations are part of a widespread corporate attack on policies that allow homeowners to use rooftop solar panels not just to power their own houses, but to sell excess solar power to utility companies. These utility companies might not be against solar power, but they're definitely against losing business to household-level solar. The logic is a familiar one:

... beneath the [Walton] family’s public embrace of environmentalism lies a deeper agenda: furthering the highly concentrated corporate economic model that has generated so much wealth for so few, often at extraordinary cost to both the environment and working people. The Waltons’ environmentalism is best understood not as a curious counterpoint to this imperative, but rather as a tool in service to it.

They put that into very direct action with a solar company, First Solar. Yes, the Walmart Waltons own a solar company. But! First Solar doesn't build solar for households. It builds utility-scale solar arrays, which means its interests are fully aligned with utility companies. Really aligned:

In June 2013, Walton-owned First Solar sent shockwaves through the solar industry when its CEO, James Hughes, published an op-ed in the Arizona Republic endorsing a proposal by the state’s biggest utility to impose a new fee on households with rooftop solar. Averaging about $50 to $100 a month, the proposed fee would be large enough to completely destroy the economics of household energy production, halting the spread of residential rooftop solar in Arizona. As the rest of the solar industry closed ranks and joined with environmental and consumer groups in opposing the plan, First Solar backed the utility, insisting that it was right to maximize its financial position. Bryan Miller, a vice president at Sunrun and president of the Alliance for Solar Choice, put First Solar’s actions in perspective: “No solar company has publicly advocated against solar until First Solar.”

The fee eventually imposed was much smaller than the proposed $50 to $100 a month, but nonetheless, it had its intended effect:

Residential installations have since declined by 40 percent, protecting APS, which produces most of its electricity from coal, nuclear, and gas, from competition. Arizona, once a leader in solar job creation, is now one of only five states in the country

where the number of solar jobs is actually declining.

The organizations the Waltons contributed that $4.5 million to are working to push similar policies in states across the country.

GLAD Sues Walmart on Behalf of Employee Denied Health Coverage For Same-Sex Partner

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) has filed a charge of discrimination on behalf of Jacqueline Cote [right], a Walmart employee in Swansea, Massachusetts who was denied spousal health insurance for her wife, reports The Rainbow Times.

Cote’s wife, Diana Smithson is currently battling ovarian cancer.

According to GLAD, Walmart’s refusal of health insurance for Smithson violates both state and federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment.

Between 2006 and 2012, Cote attempted to add Smithson to her insurance. However, when she entered her spouse’s gender as “female,” Walmart’s online system would stop her from proceeding further. When she called the retailer’s home office to investigate further, she was told that Walmart did not offer health insurance coverage to same-sex spouses.

By the time Walmart announced that it would change its policy in 2013, Cote and Smithson had racked up medical bills of more than $100,000.

Janson Wu, senior staff attorney at GLAD, said “all that Jackie wanted was to be treated like all other Walmart employees and to take care of her spouse. Instead, Walmart chose to discriminate against its gay and lesbian employees.”

In Time Of Economic Inequality,Walmart Once Again Proves They're Tone Deaf

Dear Walmart:

The reason we try not to shop at your store is that we know how badly you treat your own employees, especially by paying them poverty wages. Making them wear collared shirts they have to buy themselves isn't going to change our minds about that. If anything, you're making it worse.

Love, 

Buyers With A Conscience:

Employees at Walmart will soon have to dress a little nicer at their own expense. 

The world's largest retailer has unveiled a new dress code for its massive workforce, Business Insider reports. Starting Sept. 29, associates must wear navy blue or white collared shirts paired with khaki or black pants, capris or skirts. The khaki pants have always been part of the uniform. 

Employees will also be required to wear a Walmart-branded vest, which the company will provide. However, Walmart says its employees will have to purchase the rest of their work uniform at their own expense. The company even set up a website for employees to buy their new required work clothes at Walmart. 

The news has many employees upset. According to post by Gawker, many of the employees have been sounding off on social media saying they can't afford to buy new clothes on a minimum wage salary, even with their employee discount. 

Gawker points out that last year, "Walmart gave its shareholders nearly $13 billion in dividends and share repurchases. Walmart employees may purchase new Dickies work pants for the low price of $19.97."

A Senator Asks A Panel Of Experts To Defend Walmart. It Gets Awkward.

Hey you guys! Guys! OK, I have a new idea. Kind of radical, but just hear me out: What if we don’t pay Walmart’s employees ... but Walmart pays them instead?

Well, what do you think? Still not sure? Listen to the smart man giving his testimony at 4:50. 

How Wealthy is Walmart’s Walton Family? Just Take a Look at This

Maybe it’s just how I was brought up, but I believe when you live in a modern society you’re held to some level of social responsibility.  And while I never begrudge anyone who achieves great success or wealth, I do believe that when someone achieves this within a society, they to have a responsibility to that society.

There might be no greater example of that than Walmart, which is the world’s largest private employer.  It’s a company that comes under great scrutiny here in the United States for what many, myself included, call a sub-standard level of pay for their employees — which ends up forcing many of them onto government programs even while working full-time for the company.

Which is ironic considering Republicans often slam those who rely on government assistance.  Yet here we have a company like Walmart, paying its employees such a low wage that even while “gainfully employed” they’re still forced to use government programs.

Well, in a recent statement, a liberal group made the accusation that the Walton family controls a fortune equal to that of the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined.  A statement Politifact rated as “True” – their best rating, which means the facts back up the statement completely with no gray area whatsoever.

Staggering, isn’t it?

Politifact then went a step further and pulled numbers from a Forbes list of the richest Americans, which came up with this:

No. 6: Christy Walton (daughter-in-law), $35.4 billion
No. 7: Jim Walton (son), $33.8 billion
No. 8: Alice Walton (daughter), $33.5 billion
No. 9: S. Robson Walton (son), $33.3 billion
No. 95: Ann Walton Kroenke (niece), $4.7 billion
No. 110: Nancy Walton Laurie (niece), $4 billion

To add that up for you, those six people are worth a total of around $144.7 billion — or as much as the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined.

Who in their right mind really believes it’s a good thing for this country that six people (from the same family, no less) have more wealth than tens of millions of Americans combined?

There’s always a lot of talk from Republicans about “overthrowing our government” and a second revolution.  Well, I’ll promise you this — if we continue to allow just a handful of people in this country to control the vast majority of the wealth, that is how you’ll start a second revolution.

This level of top-down economics isn’t sustainable and eventually will boil over.  Which is exactly where we’re headed as long as we continue to support economic policies that are based on the notion that people like the Waltons need more while the poorest among us need less.

Because that’s exactly what Republicans support — cuts to federal programs that help the poor and needy while advocating deeper tax cuts for the richest among usIt’s an economic model that’s been an overwhelming failure for 98 percent of Americans while benefitting only the richest 2 percent of us, and we can’t continue to stand for it much longer.

Walmart Protestors Arrested in Alexandria, Virginia for freedom of speeching on a road

In Alexandria, Virginia, several people were arrested on Black Friday during a protest demanding better working conditions outside of a Walmart, according to police.

About 45 minutes into their protest, nine demonstrators were arrested for blocking traffic outside the Walmart on Richmond Highway in Alexandria. Only one person arrested was an employee at that Walmart location,  according to NBC Washington.

Around the country over 1,000 protests were planned at Walmart locations.

Supporters and workers are demanding full-time work with a minimum salary of $25,000 per year and the end of alleged retaliation against workers who speak out.

Walmart has 1.4 million employees, averaging $8.81 per hour.

A previous demonstration was also a part of a series of protests nationwide, and one of people arrested told News4 she was fired from a Walmart in Laurel because she was trying to organize.

The chief executive of giant US retailer Walmart recently stepped down while the company battles with a series of clashes with workers.

Mike Duke stepping down comes amidst the recent news that the campaign group Making Change at Walmart, the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) was to issue a decision to prosecute Walmart for “widespread violations of its workers’ rights”.

Outraged Because Businesses are Opening on Thanksgiving? Don’t Blame the Businesses

Between now and Thanksgiving, you’re sure to hear a seemingly endless chorus of complaints by many (and rightfully so) about the businesses opening on Thanksgiving for the sake of “Black Friday deals.”  It’s a pattern that started a few years ago.  Businesses opening at midnight, then 11:00, then 10:00, then 8:00 — you get the picture.  Every year it seems “Black Friday” is turning into “Thanksgiving Thursday.”

These businesses claim they’re just trying to give consumers the best deals as early as possible in the name of “saving Americans money.”  But we all know what this is — greed, pure and simple.  It’s one business trying to one-up the other.

Now I certainly don’t begrudge anyone trying to make money.  That being said, I firmly believe not everything should always be about money.  For a couple of days a year, family should be our main priority.

But I don’t blame these businesses.  How can I?  Sure, they’re greedy bastards that would sell the souls of every American in this country if it increased their revenue.   But the decision to open on Thanksgiving wasn’t made by them.  Consumers are the ones who made that decision.

It’s just basic economics.  It’s what I say proves trickle-down economics is a sham.

Demand is the reason why these businesses continue to open earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving.  If tens of millions of Americans weren’t flocking to Walmart at 6:00 pm or Target at 8:oo pm, there’d be no reason for them to open on Thanksgiving.

Walmart Store Accepts Thanksgiving Donations for Its Workers

Walmart is defending a holiday food drive for needy store associates at one of its Ohio stores, saying the workers are voluntarily helping colleagues who are experiencing "unforeseen hardships." 

In a photo that is being distributed on the Internet by Our Walmart, a labor group that receives funding from United Food and Commercial Workers International Union that is pushing Walmart to unionize its employees, several large plastic bins behind the scenes of a store in Canton, Ohio, are shown with signs that read: "Please donate food items here so Associates in Need can enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner." 

Kory Lundberg, a spokesman for Walmart, said this store of about 300 employees has been hosting a holiday food drive for a few years. 

"Quite frankly, a lot of people in that store are frustrated and offended that this is reported in a way besides other folks rallying around each other," Lundberg said. 

Last year, he said there were about 12 people who benefited from the program. 

"I couldn't be prouder of people in that store helping in a tough situation," he said.

"They set the tub up for associates and managers to donate items for associates for things beyond their control," Lundberg said. "It shows these associates care for each other. This isn't every day run of the mill stuff -- maybe a spouse has lost a job or lost a loved one, or maybe a natural disaster has hit." 

Lundberg said Walmart has a company-wide program called The Associates in Critical Need Trust that is a non-profit 501(c)(3) to provide financial assistance to associates who are experiencing hardship. Associates can donate to the trust, either through a payroll deduction or voluntary, direct contributions. In 2008, the trust made more than 160 grants to Walmart associates every week. "Since its inception, more than 50,000 associates have sought help through the trust for themselves and their families this way," Walmart says on its website. 

In the Canton store associates nominate co-workers with hardships to management to receive food donations. 

"They're not the same program but symbolize the same thing: the importance of the company taking care of its people," Lundberg said."There's one lady in the store I talked to last week and she was helped out by this program last year," Lundberg said. "The situation came because she stopped receiving child support payments. Nobody plans for that. This store rallied around it." 

Lundberg said he did not know if other Walmart locations had similar programs, but some of its other stores may have similar voluntary efforts. 

"I'm not aware of anybody else doing this, but again we have 4,000 locations. Last week I wasn't aware this was done. I wouldn't be surprised if many of our stores are doing something," he said. 

Lundberg said that no one in the store knows who the food donations will go to because the store management delivers the items to their homes. 

"Nobody knows who's receiving benefits. It's a really neat thing that store is doing," he said. 

Scott Stringer, of Dayton, Ohio, who supports the Our Walmart movement, was critical of the food drive in Canton, which is about 180 miles northwest from his store. 

When asked for his reaction to Walmart's defense of its food drive program in Canton, Ohio, Stringer, 27, said, "The way I feel is that if Walmart feels we're taking such a nice story and making it seem bad, I would say associates are united. We take care of each other, but my question to Walmart is, 'What are you doing to take care of us?'" 

Stringer has worked for Walmart for five years. 

When one of his co-worker's homes burned down within the last year, Stringer said his colleagues started a collection plate so she could stay at a hotel and start rebuilding her home.

"Walmart didn't do that. We did that. The workers have always been united. Why isn't Walmart uniting to take care of us as well?

Hundreds of Walmart Workers Gather, Over 50 Arrested During Massive Protest in L.A.

Yesterday, hundreds of people participated in a protest outside of Walmart in Los Angeles to demand higher wages for full-time employees. Over 50 protestors were placed under arrest outside of the store in the largest civil disobedience event in Walmart history.

Several protesters were taken into custody without incident after refusing to cooperate with the police. A $500 bail is set for each person placed into custody.

The group is demanding that every full-time Walmart employee is to receive at least a $25,000 yearly salary.

Anthony Goytia, a 31-year-old father with two children, said he expects to make only $12,000 this year.

“The power went out at my house yesterday because I couldn’t afford the bill,” Goytia explained. “I had to run around and get two payday loans to pay for my rent from the first of the month. Yesterday we went to a food bank.”

Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg attempted to soften the protest’s demand of a $25,000 a year stating that hundreds of thousands of employees are currently earning more than that amount already and the opportunities are provided for everyone. Lundberg compared the amount of participating protesters to the amount of Walmart employees saying the amount is insignificant when put into perspective.

“We’ve seen time and again there are virtually no [Walmart] associates participating in these orchestrated events because they know the truth about working for Walmart,” Lundberg said. “We provide our associates with more opportunities for career growth and greater economic security for their family than many other companies in America,” he claimed.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as President Obama have recently proposed an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour. President Obama came out in support of the measure on Thursday.

Watch direct footage of the protest here:

Workers Rights Flash Mob breaks out at Walmart

Someone call Wade Robson, because in today's world, if you are making minimum wage, feel like you're being mistreated, and want to stand up for workers rights, you better be willing to serve up some complex choreography! 

That's what happened at a Raleigh, NC Walmart this week when a Workers Rights group asked the store to honour a petition and reinstate mistreated workers. The managers weren't having any of it, so it left the workers no choice but to serve them with some hot choreography, and make the managers shit their pants. 

Check out the video:

Go Bernie! Go!

Walmart Asks Employees For Glowing Reviews, Gets These Instead

Walmart is weathering some harsh criticism — from their own employees.

In the wake of a Gawker story that shared less-than-flattering emails from Walmart workers, the retail giant asked employees to send Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan some stories that attested to the greatness of the company.

While some of the respondents did Walmart’s bidding, others bravely posted their true thoughts on the company’s practices, right on their employer’s own website.

One worker unfortunately seemed somewhat resigned to his fate:

Sadly, the Gawker stories match my Walmart experience.

Another suggested that there could be retaliation for speaking out:

Isn’t it funny that these stories ‘aren’t true,’ and yet many of us are too scared to post our disagreement, lest we lose our job? I read the Gawker reports: There’s not one bit that I haven’t experienced myself.

This employee commented on Walmart’s obvious cover-up effort:

I choose not to tell my Walmart experience.  All you corporate people want is the sunshine stories.  You don’t want the reality.

We’re guessing that’s not exactly what they were after, but you can only hide the truth for so long.
Hear some other horror stories from ex-Walmart employees here:

Walmart Low Wages for their employees - High Taxes for us to make up the difference!

Walmart Workers Protest Low Wages At Annual Meeting: ‘I Cannot Survive Like This’

Last Friday, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and America’s biggest welfare queen, held its annual meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. The activity-filled event attracted workers, shareholders, and executives from all around the world to celebrate their giant profits and company culture.
Over 14,000 people attended the event, including celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé, displaying the retailer’s marketing power and budget. Of course, all of Sam Walton’s heirs were there, flaunting their status as some of the richest and most heartless people on the planet.
However, this year’s meeting was not as celebratory as usual, as Walmart is facing increased pressure from the public after a series of strikes and protests over employee pay and working conditions.
Walmart’s outsourcing of labor to factories in third-world countries with poor safety records is also under fire.  Lobbying group Making Change at Walmart raised over $9,000 on the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to bring Kalpona Akter, a former child textile laborer from Bangladesh, to the meeting. She was accompanied by Sumi Abedin, a survivor of the deadly fire that killed at least 112 garment workers at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka last year.
Akter joined others in calling on Walmart to sign a legally binding agreement to improve working conditions in Bangladesh’s textile factories, an agreement that has already been signed by many of the company’s rivals following a horrific  building collapse in April that left over 1,127 factory workers dead and an entire nation in mourning.
They were joined by workers from Walmart’s supply-chain side, who complained about work conditions and retaliation against anyone who reports these issues, as well as retail-side employees who were protesting such measly hourly wages that they are forced to rely on government subsidized programs such as food stamps and Medicaid benefits in order to feed and sustain themselves and their families.
Here are three of the protesters that made an impact on Walmart at this year’s meeting:

California bill would fine big firms whose workers get Medi-Cal

A follow-up on yesterday's post:

For years, politicians and labor unions have pilloried Wal-Mart and other large employers for paying workers so little that many qualify for government health insurance at taxpayers' expense.

Now critics fear the public will get stuck with an even bigger tab as California and other states expand Medicaid as part of the federal healthcare law. That has California lawmakers taking aim at the world's largest retailer and other big firms.

Legislators, backed by unions, consumer groups and doctors, are calling for fines that could reach about $6,000 per full-time employee who ends up on Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program for the poor and others. They say this would eliminate a loophole in the Affordable Care Act that encourages large retailers and restaurant chains to dump hourly workers onto the government dole because there's currently no penalty for doing so.

The outcome of this California battle could have national implications as other cash-strapped states search for ways to shore up safety-net programs that are bound to be stretched by a massive healthcare expansion.

"There are concerns that employers will be gaming this new system and taking less and less responsibility for their workers," said Sonya Schwartz, program director at the National Academy for State Health Policy. "This may make employers think twice."

The state proposal has already cleared key legislative committees. The next hurdle is getting approval from a two-thirds majority of lawmakers in Sacramento.

With the idea gaining momentum, retailers and business groups are pushing back. They say California's move would set a dangerous precedent and result in fewer jobs at a time when many people are still struggling to find work.

More at The L. A. Times

Who's Paying for the Low Prices? You are!

Taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart's poverty wages. http://huff.to/1aIYWTB